Electronic discovery (e-discovery) is a procedure by which parties in a legal matter preserve, collect, review, and exchange electronically stored information (ESI). There are many different types of ESI that may be sought in e-discovery, such as email and word processing documents, as well as databases and other data stores.
Typically, the e-discovery process is set in motion as soon as litigation is reasonably foreseeable, which triggers the legal duty to preserve potentially relevant ESI. Attorneys from both sides determine the scope of e-discovery, identify and preserve the relevant ESI, and make e-discovery requests and challenges.
After relevant ESI is identified, it needs to be protected from “spoliation,” i.e., any destruction or alteration of evidence. While there are different ways to preserve ESI, the most common is through a legal hold process. A legal hold is a formal communication sent to relevant custodians instructing them not to delete ESI (or paper documents) that may be relevant to the legal matter.
One common preservation method is a collect-to-preserve approach that collects relevant data by copying it from a data source to a repository. The collect-to-preserve approach is often recommended for highly relevant ESI or ESI at a high risk of deletion.
Another preservation method is a preserve-in-place approach that maintains ESI at the data source. A preservation application either inhibits any attempts by custodians to delete ESI or maintains backup copies of ESI at the repository to prevent any loss of data.
In many ways, preservation may be the most difficult portion of the e-discovery process. It involves taking steps to ensure that potentially relevant data is not destroyed or altered during the pendency of the legal matter. Preservation failures can result in a variety of sanctions.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improvements in e-discovery systems, for example, recovery from failures, as well as optimization of holds and releases. The present invention satisfies this need.